Infinitely Losing My Edge
Yeah, I'm losing my edge.
I'm losing my edge.
The kids are coming up from behind.
I'm losing my edge.
I'm losing my edge to the kids from Ecuador and from Beijing.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Soft Boys show in Cambridge.
I'm losing my edge.
I'm losing my edge to the kids whose footsteps I hear when they get on the decks.
I'm losing my edge to the internet seekers who can tell me every member of every good group from 1969 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Shanghai and Accra.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Manila kids in little jackets and borrowed nostalgia for the unremembered nineties.
I'm losing my edge.
I'm losing my edge.
I can hear the footsteps every night on the decks.
But I was there.
I was there in 1978 at the first Visage practice in a loft in London.
I was working on the harpsichord sounds with much patience.
I was there when Holger Czukay started up his first band.
I told him, "Don't do it that way. You'll never make a dime."
I was there.
I was the first guy playing Bobby Byrd to the electroclash kids.
I played it at CBGB's.
Everybody thought I was crazy.
We all know.
I was there.
I was there.
I've never been wrong.
But I'm losing my edge to better-looking people with better ideas and more talent.
And they're actually really, really nice.
I'm losing my edge.
I heard you have a compilation of every good song ever done by anybody.
Every great song by Public Enemy. All the underground hits.
All The Detroit Cobras tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Radio Birdman record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal crunk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a sitar and a 808 and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Smiths record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a chamberlin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a theremin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Marvin Gaye,
KRS-One,
Eyeless In Gaza,
Aloha Tigers,
Pole,
Oblivians,
Pulsallama,
The Fugs,
Agitation Free,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
Amon Düül II,
Rhythm & Sound,
The Move,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
Radiohead,
Black Moon,
Subhumans,
Harmonia,
Peter and Kerry,
Arab on Radar,
Bobby Womack,
Public Enemy,
Dorothy Ashby,
The Seeds,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Simply Red,
The Smiths,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Index,
Grandmaster Flash,
Johnny Osbourne,
Alice Coltrane,
Royal Trux,
Rotary Connection,
Marshall Jefferson,
Eli Mardock,
The Grass Roots,
Schoolly D,
Bob Dylan,
Swans,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Hashim,
Electric Prunes,
The Dave Clark Five,
The Fuzztones,
The Pretty Things,
Jerry Gold Smith,
X-Ray Spex,
The Last Poets,
The Evens,
Lou Reed,
Jandek,
The Offenders,
The Fortunes,
Boredoms,
Crime,
Newcleus,
Aural Exciters,
Byron Stingily,
Sun Ra,
Mary Jane Girls, Mary Jane Girls, Mary Jane Girls, Mary Jane Girls.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.